Woohoo voltage regulator fire!

[ldnz]

Somewhere along the line (probably the last time I took the tank off) the wires that go into the regulator have been stretched, and shorted against each other. Plug has pretty much caught fire and completely burnt out on corner, and in pulling out the plug one of the reg's pins came out as well. What a giggle.

Whats a regulator cost? How compatible are they between bikes(ie do I have to get the official kawasaki 97 6r one?) or is it possible to build your own? Haven't come across a schematic yet.

The alternator coils test out fine according to the haynes manual, so they should be ok, and prior to me pulling the reg off the bike it was working, just only outputting 12.3-12.6 volts ie not enough to charge the battery. Believe this was because maybe two of the 3 alternator wires and parted. So maybe the reg is recoverable if I can somehow solder the pin back in.

thoughts?

[terbang]

If you know what youre doing you can pretty well fit anything as long as it is the right spec. I fried my 400's Stator windings along with the Regulator Rectifier. Hideous price from Suzuki so I did a bit of surfing and found a stator off a Honda (4 wheel thingy) and a R/R off a Ginny on tardme. $100 all up including a neat connector plug from supercheap autos and shes real beaut again.

[ldnz]

Just did the haynes recommended resistance test on the reg and it seemed to test out ok.

Maybe its salvagable. Just need to figure out how the hell to solder the loose pin back in. Bloody sealed units.

Do all bike regs follow the same principle?

[terbang]

Do all bike regs follow the same principle?

There are essentially two types. The fixed magnet kind (older bikes) and the newer type of alternator (electro magnet) similar to a car one (newer bikes) all follow very similar principles.

[ldnz]

Thanks. I'm currently trying to scrape the rubber coating off the back with a hot soldering iron. Its awful stuff.

[ldnz]

Bodged new wire onto snapped pin, probably even more likely to catch fire than the old wiring! Next step - fill it with araldite (is araldite conductive?) to seal it up and cut out the burnt plug. Should keep me going long enough to find a new reg.

Hope a fuse stops the nexts piece catching fire.

[Antony N]

Bodged new wire onto snapped pin, probably even more likely to catch fire than the old wiring! Next step - fill it with araldite (is araldite conductive?) to seal it up and cut out the burnt plug. Should keep me going long enough to find a new reg.

Hope a fuse stops the nexts piece catching fire.

yeah that will be fine, just don't use new-tech, bog stuff with metal shavings, my father in law did this to me, man I got a shock ! was fixing a wire off the coil ! lol

[ldnz]

Hah bugger! I used boring old silicone in the end, seemed to hold it together. The bloody thing works, but its still not putting out quite enough voltage. Battery is slowly getting lower and lower. Got a new reg coming out from the uk.